Abstract

To the Editor: I would suggest that the dis-interest of internists in postgraduate training in psychiatry may be attributed to the first two words of the title of your editorial, "Stale, Soft, or Chronic" (Ann. Intern. Med. 70: 1272, 1969). Psychiatric instruction is, in most cases, stale and very, very soft. Despite decades of background, experimental studies, and clinical observations upon which data (facts, not theories, even if simple clinical descriptions—see Kraeplin) are based are rarely adequately controlled. The skeptic is often asked to take things on faith.

This leads to the problem of apparent disinterest. Practicing internists do not